Another fine set of pic`s there truckerash 
as jj72 said make em beg for em
Please Sir can i have some more 
Keep em coming Ash
Cheers
some memorys there nice pics
spardo/muhandis. see, im stuck between the f89 and the 141 as a proper truck. just cant decidie which is the best.
take a look, both blue, both got bank of spots, both got stripy bumper, both classic trucks from companies no longer with us.
maybe i should start a new topic “the classic 80’s” and put loads more of my photos up…what you lot reckon?
Fantastic pics Ash,I used to live not far from Youngs yard when they moved from London Road,Faversham to Speedfreights old yard at Dargate.
Always remember seeing their Mack’s parked up between trips to M/E,they also had some with the front axle set back.
They also had two dirty great chrome Mack bulldogs outside the office door,stood nearly three feet tall I think.Mind you,I was younger and therefore shorter then.
More pics please!
Yes, many more pics please 
While at Uni,I did some driving for UCC,East London Depot,mainly to belgium with a 'fridge.had a Scania 110 6x4 LHD,with a 2 stick shift and sleeper.I was one of the first around.On the boat from dover,in those days one used to meet people from:
Cave Wood
Taunton Meat
Wyatts(Norfolk?)
A Reading company,who’s name I can’t remember,but who collected chipboard on stacked flats,from Belgium
A S Rawlings
Thurley Transport
Phillip Crouch
Highland Line(Murfitts?)
etc…
Tagoat:
Yes, many more pics please
truckerash:
spardo/muhandis. see, im stuck between the f89 and the
141 as a proper truck. just cant decidie which is the best.
Definitely the 89 for me. That picture of the Young Brothers one brings back
memories. On our usual weekend stopover at the Bakehouse we had to give
some comfort to (well at least my co-driveress did) a stocky fair headed driver
of theirs who’d just lost his brother in a factory accident. We’d run together
from Calais but only then did the story emerge. Neither of us can remember
his name though and ‘Viking’ doesn’t ring those bells either.
muhandis89:
While at Uni,I did some driving for UCC,East London Depot,mainly to belgium with a 'fridge.had a Scania 110 6x4 LHD,with a 2 stick shift and sleeperhere ya go mate, 110 Scania 6x4 and fridge.
Didnt know they had sleepers though. Got a photo of it? Can you remember the reg?
Spose you know that Grangewood took UCC over. Did you know any of these guys. David Miller, Ray Smith, Kenny Searle, a really tall German bloke(?) and what about Sim Jones who had his own truck on for UCC then Grangewood.
The Scania I drove at UCC was LHD version with sleeper and 2 stick shift(one for high/low range and the other stick for the gears).I do remember Grangewood trucks(they had Chereau fridges which were pretty advanced at the time) and were owned then by a company called E.W.Taylor,who were shipping agents.Although the UCC trucks were based near Brentwood(at the least the ones I used) ,transport operations were run from an office in Smithfield.Thanks v much for the picture.Great!!
truckerash:
muhandis89:
While at Uni,I did some driving for UCC,East London Depot,mainly to belgium with a 'fridge.had a Scania 110 6x4 LHD,with a 2 stick shift and sleeperhere ya go mate, 110 Scania 6x4 and fridge.
Didnt know they had sleepers though. Got a photo of it? Can you remember the reg?
Spose you know that Grangewood took UCC over. Did you know any of these guys. David Miller, Ray Smith, Kenny Searle, a really tall German bloke(?) and what about Sim Jones who had his own truck on for UCC then Grangewood.
KW: like the bit about the 2 bulldogs outside Youngs yard. Wonder where they are now? Someone would pay an absolute fortune on e bay for them!
heres pic of said Mack. think they had 2. this pic taken in Dover, one of my “favorite haunts”.
I remember on my outings from Dover seeing Macks from Pentus Brown at Leighton Buzzard,and down in Italy ,seeing a number of Macks from Spain,as well as the IranContainer ones from Teheran.
truckerash:
KW: like the bit about the 2 bulldogs outside Youngs yard. Wonder where they are now? Someone would pay an absolute fortune on e bay for them!
heres pic of said Mack. think they had 2. this pic taken in Dover, one of my “favorite haunts”.
Bobcats26:
HI gents,my dad used to drive for ECT, and i remember as a kid being picked up in the black volvos.
i would much appreciate it if you guys could send me pics of the black trucks and any of my dad you might have (Dave Baker (long blonde hair)) email davybaker26@yahoo.co.ukMany thanks,
Davy.
was his brother Shaun
Bump
.
I haven’t seen Kay now for a few years, but her sister Dee still lives in Wimborne, and I see her quite regularly and have a natter, I’ll ask her next time. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s I worked a fair bit with Ian and Kay.
Found this in my old collection.Interview with Ian Rycroft -a man of many parts,not all spare!!-by Truck Magazine:
TRUCK Magazine January 1996
Europe’s trouble-spots fascinate EC Transport boss Ian Rycroft. Nearly bankrupted over the arms to Iraq fiasco, Bosnia saved him, and now he’s heading for Russia. Jack Semple reports.
At 16, Ian Rycroft was a runner for J Walter Thompson, the advertising agency, and then a private in the Army Catering Corps. At 17 he was in the sappers, getting shot at in Aden; then by ‘a series of accidents’ he rose to captain, commanding a front line unit against the South Yemenis in Oman. He left the Army at 28.
Stand apart, for a short while, from the humdrum world of UK transport, with its fussing over drivers’ hours, the minutiae of truck dimensions and cowboys who cut rates. Imagine instead that you are bogged down in Bosnia, staring at the barrel of a machine gun. The weapon is wielded by a Serb who has drunk too much plum vodka to be much interested in the sweet voice of reason. Behind you stand your trucks, driven by men who used to be senior NCOs in some of the world’s most effective regiments. The truck loads of food and blankets might arrive just-in-time for people facing cold and starvation. What do you? ‘You tell him, in German, to ■■■■ off.’ And - this time at least - he does.
Welcome to the extraordinary world of Ian Rycroft, ex-Corps of Royal Engineers in support, among others, of the Airborne and Commando forces and, in his own whimsical words, ‘a poor road haulier from Dorset’. Rycroft, 48, was the first man to undertake international armaments haulage from Britain when he set up his haulage and forwarding business, EC Transport (Wimborne), in 1974. This followed a colourful career in bomb disposal and the sorting of problems which others found too hot to handle - a military career from which he has never fully retired.
But four years ago, it all looked to have gone horribly wrong. In February 1992, his friend and at the time co-director at EC, Colin Phillips, was convicted of conspiracy to break the arms embargo on Iraq which was in force in the late 1980s. Directors of EC’s customer, Ordtec (Ordnance Technology), were also convicted at the Reading Crown Court trial. The case was out of the same bracket as the Supergun affair, the Matrix Churchill trial and the subsequent Scott Inquiry into the now infamous re-arming of Saddam Hussein prior to the invasion of Kuwait. EC was pushed close to collapse, as the government withdrew essential licences, and customers, put off by the bad publicity, melted away; Ordtec and its directors went bankrupt. Indeed, EC is the only company involved in the Iraq-related trials which has continued to trade. Only now have the Ordtec case convictions been overturned, in much the same way as the Matrix convictions, by the Court of Appeal.
The Court delivered its judgement on November 7th 1995. It said that, for the original trial, the defence was deprived of documents which it would have used to argue that the government knew what was going on and turned a blind eye; and, deprived of ammunition for the defence (the court’s own pun), the accused finally caved in and pleaded guilty, having plea-bargained to avoid a jail sentence. Now the convictions have been quashed, Rycroft feels free for the first time to talk about the trial, its effect on the business and how EC stayed afloat.
The Ordtec/Phillips case arose from the supply of equipment and components for making munitions fuses. They were sent to a consignee in Jordan, which was being used covertly by Iraq to get round the embargo. EC’s role was to arrange the UK haulage and the forwarding to Jordan of five container-load consignments, all of which were covered by correct documentation. ‘Ordtec was a well-established member of the defence industry in Britain; it’s not our place to question those documents,’ Rycroft says.
On the fifth and final consignment, however, the company to which EC had sub-contracted arrangement of the shipping flagged up a strong Iraqi involvement in the Jordanian consignee. This was to cover themselves, Rycroft believes. Phillips, who was responsible for the shipping part of EC’s business, exposed himself to possible prosecution by taking no action beyond re-sending the consignment through another company.
Rycroft explains the circumstances: ‘Arms are often supplied to countries which are subject to an embargo. They go through a third country - a triangle arrangement. If the politics are more complicated then you can have whatever geometrical formation you like; you could have a hexagonal arrangement,’ he says, with a smile and a characteristic energetic shrug. Much of the arms from Britain to Iraq in the late 1980s and early part of 1990 went through Saudi Arabia, a destination for which, uniquely, exporters did not have to provide an end-user certificate; but Jordan was also used, for convenience.
To Rycroft, the policy of the British government (and of the United States) was to re-arm Saddam, even though that wasn’t said in public and sanctions-busting was against the law. Who was EC Transport to argue? The Appeal Court judgement refers to evidence which supports this view. For example, the prosecuting QC, Andrew Collins (now a High Court judge), had volunteered that it would be ‘quite wrong for the Crown to seek to prosecute’ any defendant ‘if the powers-that-be were turning a blind eye’. He assured the court in 1992 that no evidence existed that this was the case.
However, there was evidence, the Appeal Court said, not least a telegram from the embassy in Jordan. It is headed ‘Procurement: Export Licence application for fuses’ and it asks: ‘Are we trying to ensure that the problem does not arise again by putting a stop to further Jordanian involvement in Iraqi procurement? Have we not turned a blind eye to Jordanian involvement in the past? (The ambassador thinks that this has been the case).’ The Appeal Court judgement also highlights evidence that MI5 was kept fully informed of what Ordtec was doing by its managing director - who was spying on Iraq for the security service, MI6.
Rycroft believes that the government as a whole was wracked by internal divisions. HM Customs & Excise, which had already had its nose put out of joint by being forced to drop its Supergun inquiry, was determined to get some convictions in order to demonstrate its independence. But it didn’t try to catch a really big fish: ‘Customs & Excise picked out smaller and less robust targets than a large plc,’ observes Rycroft, with another animated shrug.
The prosecutions were, above all, stupid and reflect badly on the executive arm of government, he says. If they had been blocked, the larger Matrix trial wouldn’t have happened and the government could have saved itself the Scott inquiry. ‘Government papers relating to our appeal have returned to the shadows pretty fast,’ he adds.
Rycroft doesn’t talk in terms of whether or not the prosecutions were fair: ‘This is not a trade governed by any rules of fairness.’ He was disgusted, however, by what he describes as the indecent enthusiasm shown by a key competitor, who sat in court to see Phillips ‘swing’ - and to give journalists a running commentary, with background notes. The same man tried, without success, to persuade the Western Area Licensing Authority to get rid of EC Transport completely by withdrawing its licence to operate on the grounds of loss of good repute.
After the convictions were announced, the related business vanished within a fortnight as the government withdrew vital licences. Rycroft remembers with some amusement that during this short period, however, he received a job from the same department whose minister had, weeks before, issued a Public Immunity Instrument - the so-called gagging order - which hadcontributed to Phillips’ confession.
It was typical of the whole black comedy, as Rycroft sees it. But there wasn’t much to laugh about, as he cut deep to reduce his overheads. He had to sack eight drivers, several of whom had been with him for a long time, and two office staff; eight of his 14 tractor units had to go. These, like all EC’s vehicles, were highly specialised; they were left-hand-drive and kitted out to conform to petroleum and ADR regulations.
The clear-out left the international heavy haulage side of EC’s business intact, although it suffered from adverse customer reaction to the conviction of Phillips. The firm faced serious problems, as Rycroft looked for something new to keep himself occupied and the company afloat. Napoleon once said that the best generals are lucky generals, and at this point Rycroft’s luck turned dramatically - in the direction of Bosnia. MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International) was being set up, modelled on the excellent French organisation, Medicins Sans Frontieres, by a friend who had persuaded the Ministry of Defence to help. The MoD had agreed to contribute 500 tonnes of surplus compo rations from the British Army of the Rhine. Could EC arrange transport from Germany to Bosnia? Dead right it could, with Phillips doing much of the organisation. Through that job, Rycroft lined up an even bigger deal, working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on a ring-fenced project funded by the George Sorros Foundation. (Sorros is the Hungarian currency dealer who made billions out of Britain’s exit from the ERM.).
After the convictions were announced, the related business vanished within a fortnight as the government withdrew vital licences. Rycroft remembers with some amusement that during this short period, however, he received a job from the same department whose minister had, weeks before, issued a Public Immunity Instrument - the so-called gagging order - which hadcontributed to Phillips’ confession.
It was typical of the whole black comedy, as Rycroft sees it. But there wasn’t much to laugh about, as he cut deep to reduce his overheads. He had to sack eight drivers, several of whom had been with him for a long time, and two office staff; eight of his 14 tractor units had to go. These, like all EC’s vehicles, were highly specialised; they were left-hand-drive and kitted out to conform to petroleum and ADR regulations.
The clear-out left the international heavy haulage side of EC’s business intact, although it suffered from adverse customer reaction to the conviction of Phillips. The firm faced serious problems, as Rycroft looked for something new to keep himself occupied and the company afloat. Napoleon once said that the best generals are lucky generals, and at this point Rycroft’s luck turned dramatically - in the direction of Bosnia. MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International) was being set up, modelled on the excellent French organisation, Medicins Sans Frontieres, by a friend who had persuaded the Ministry of Defence to help. The MoD had agreed to contribute 500 tonnes of surplus compo rations from the British Army of the Rhine. Could EC arrange transport from Germany to Bosnia? Dead right it could, with Phillips doing much of the organisation. Through that job, Rycroft lined up an even bigger deal, working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on a ring-fenced project funded by the George Sorros Foundation. (Sorros is the Hungarian currency dealer who made billions out of Britain’s exit from the ERM.).
The job, for which he was paid a management fee, was to set up an operation to run convoys of desperately needed supplies to people, mostly Muslim, in Tuzla, Srebrenica, Sarajevo and a lot of outlying villages. Tough job, requiring tough trucks. It was now September 1992, and things were ‘getting quite lively’, with the Serbs, Croats and Bosnian government troops all fighting each other. The mountain tracks which the trucks would have to negotiate were two feet deep in mud with rocks at the bottom you couldn’t see.
Rycroft, who virtually had a blank cheque from the UN on the understanding that he would spend the money wisely and honestly, knew roughly what he wanted and where to find it. Off to Germany, and to Mercedes-Benz’s huge used truck showroom at Koblenz, part of the network from which Merc sells used trucks these days. There he found examples of the 6x6s rigids with tough, high-sided tipper bodies which are popular tools of the German construction industry. What Merc didn’t have, it quickly found. He took 13 in all. Mercedes’ mechanics went through them to make sure they were in good order - and then gave a six month warranty on major parts.
The huge Mercedes used truck showrooms, with their tiled floors - ‘look, no leaks!’ - soft music, and electronic image bank of stock elsewhere, are impressive, he says. ‘It makes anything we have here look very poor,’ he says, shaking his head. A bit over-the-top for Britain, perhaps? 'No. These are serious people. If Mercedes does the same thing here, the British used truck industry needs to look out.
Back in Britian, a different pace. He’d got wind that members of the Road Haulage Association’s international group, of which he was vice-chairman, wanted him out. The feeling was that Colin Phillips’ conviction made Rycroft unsuitable. In a belligerent letter of resignation, he wrote to chairman Paul Frampton - still a personal friend - that he preferred to be judged by his peers than by people he didn’t consider to be his equals: ‘It wasn’t their opinion that I objected to, it was the fact that none of them would express it to my face.’
Rycroft was already less than popular in some RHA circles, for pointing out some humbug and double-standards from certain council members. They wanted to make it hard to get into haulage by having tough new financial requirements imposed by law - on new entrants only. That was rich, Rycroft pointed out, coming from people whose own balance sheets wouldn’t stand up to the same test. He now sits on the international groups of the Freight Transport Association, an organisation which he rates as more informative, more dynamic and more influential with government.
Rycroft’s assertive, trouble-shooting style has been in demand in Britain. He was responsible for turning round, at a bank’s request, a family haulage firm which had a labour problem. The 50-odd drivers didn’t like essential changes in work patterns, especially plans for international work. Rycroft drew on his Sandhurst training - move fast and confront the issue. After an advance talk to the senior shop steward, the drivers were called together one Saturday morning: ‘I spoke them in the same way as I would speak to soldiers before going into battle,’ he says. Only this time, the less-than-keen were invited to step forward and, as it were, dismiss themselves. Some did, and left without compensation or redundancy. Most stayed to fight the good fight; problem solved. The company is now prospering.
EC Transport, too, is on the way back, having found another specialist niche - in the international haulage of hazardous waste. Like armaments and Continental heavy haulage, it involves reams of complicated paperwork. EC is back to its 1992 strength and Rycroft has most of his old drivers back on board.
The Court of Appeal judgement should be a further boost to the business and he is still in touch with Colin Phillips. But the past four years have been hard and Rycroft doubts that the firm will fully regain its good name among some former customers. He and Phillips have engaged a top QC, to pursue claims for compensation from the government for loss of business and of reputation.
Meanwhile, Rycroft has high hopes for Eurofreight, the internet information service for pan-European transport which he launched this autumn, and in which Village Publishing, the owner of TRUCK, has a stake. But his latest venture promises even more excitment - haulage to Russia, where violent crime is now endemic and lorries are a major target: ‘Isn’t Russia becoming like the Wild West?’ we ask. ‘Yes,’ he enthuses. ‘It’s the GREAT Wild West.’
Small language edit, stars don’t cut it. 
D.
jj72:
wasn’t trans-oman something to do with e h phillips out of parkestone?remember EC well, maybe after your time but the TM later on was Andre Linford who I still deal with as he works for Wallenius Wilhelmsen shipping line in Southampton
I seem to remember Mr Rycroft went head to head with some government agency or another (DTI?) and won, might have been something to do with the matrix churchill affair iirc
Trans-Oman
Was run by a man called Lennie Smith who unfortunately died a few years ago having lost his company and was driving for an Irish Company
regards Pat
Just to put the picture straight, Ian Rycroft started in the transport business when he bought two or three Kangaroo Trailers out of his retirement lump sum from the Royal Engineers and started a traffic sharing agreement with Doman of Irun, Spain. In about 1976, Doman pulled out of the agreement, opened an office in Poole and set up in opposition to him, having all his pricing details in their possession (from the traffic sharing agreement). Ian went through a really rough time, he lost much of his staple business and the trucks were running on border insurance because he couldnt afford a full policy. He had one customer that kept him going running phosphorous pentachloride to Huelva. He then began to really concentrate on the explosive and chemical side of the business which was way more profitable and changed the company name from Rycroft European Transport to ECTransport (Explosive and Chemical Transport).
That KW was pure vanity, it had a 535hp Detroit Diesel in it and would average about 4.5mpg, the wiring loom burnt out in Athens on a trip to Turkey and the oil pump failed on Cherbourg Hill on its last trip (result=new engine). It was the cover photo story in Supertruck Magazine in about 1977, Ian bought it from Dandos, Chipping Sodbury after they imported it from Switzerland.
The company FCF that was mentioned was “Furnell, Compton, Flower”
The work to Oman came from a contract that a company called “Gulfsped” got, I don’t know what happened to it, Ian had a share, so did Frank Flower, I foget the third. Much of the traction to Marseille and Genoa (for the Jeddah Transport) was done by Frank Flower, he paid trip money, I think it was £80.00 for a Marseille and £90.00 for a Genoa. I was told that one of the drivers had managed two round trips in a week to Genoa from Poole.
Just one final word, Ian was prone to a little exageration, it was always better to look for independent confirmation of what he said but even when things were really bad, he would pay his drivers a the instant that they produced their time sheet and expenses form.
i used to live in poole,and i remember seeing that kenworth parked outside furnell’s garage by the dock gates quite a lot… always seemed to have something wrong with it…